The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 105
587 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Collection
ability, will be remembered much longer for his services to the
preservation of pioneer history than for any banking operations.
Apparently Mr. Carson is being a "Leslie Waggener" of New
Mexico.
He sees a need for the preservation of the historical record
and with good banker-judgment knows that funds are needed to
accomplish the task and he has spoken forcefully for the funds
which are needed. What he says has meaning for New Mexico but
applies equally to Texas. Texas needs a new Leslie Waggener to
come forth with the conviction and determination which Wag-
gener put into the Handbook of Texas. A rich harvest of pioneer
recollections may still be gathered in Texas but the time is grow-
ing short.
I want to talk to the people of New Mexico and adjoining states
about an opportunity and responsibility that has come to my attention
in the past few months. I want to talk particularly to you who have
homes, income, and businesses in this region.
Do you realize that a handful of those pioneers who made all of
this possible are still with us? These men and women pioneers are the
ones, as Webster put it, "who went before into the wilderness preparing
the way for others to follow." You and I are those others.
There is nothing new about pioneers. We have had them in America
since 1492 and in New Mexico since 1539. But there is one thing
which makes our pioneers now stand out above all the pioneers of
four hundred years. They are the last. This region, which was curi-
ously the first settled in the United States by pioneers who came with
Coronado, was also the last settled. In large measure, the pioneers
of such states as even Texas, Colorado, and California, are gone. As a
matter of fact, a large number of the pioneers in New Mexico now
alive are the sons and daughters of those other pioneers.
I do not believe that there is a single one of my listeners who has
not known of some pioneer who has passed on in recent years. How
often we hear these folks say: "Oh, I wish you had known Mr. ---
He had such wonderful stories of the West." Then our question in-
evitably follows: "Did you get them recorded?" And the answer is:
"No, they are lost forever."
Now, you and I, and our generation, have an opportunity not pos-
sessed by any generation that will follow us. We have the last of the
pioneers, and at the same time, we have the tape recorder to retain
for all future time their priceless reminiscences. I want to repeat, this
opportunity will never come again in any generation.
Now this realization came to a small group of men about two years
ago. They were impressed with the fact that we were facing the10o5
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956, periodical, 1956; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101162/m1/123/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.